LUDINGTON, MI – A day or so after Baby Kate disappeared, the child's mother, Ariel Courtland, told her boss at the car wash where she worked that “Sean had told her he had thrown her in a lake and that the baby was dead.”

Or so Courtland’s ex-boss, Aaron Salisbury, testified Thursday.

And a day or so before the baby’s disappearance, Salisbury testified, Courtland told him “that she wishes the baby had never been born” and “would just disappear or die.”

Salisbury was one of three defense witnesses at the trial of Sean Michael Phillips, 22, of Mason County’s Victory Township. Phillips is charged with unlawful imprisonment, a 15-year felony. He is accused of abducting his 4 ½-month-old daughter, Katherine Shelbie-Elizabeth Phillips, by taking her from Courtland shortly after 1 p.m. June 29, 2011, outside Courtland’s apartment complex.

Testimony in the case wrapped up before the lunch break. Jurors are to return at 2:30 p.m. to hear the attorneys’ closing arguments, then the judge’s jury instructions, before they start deliberating.

Salisbury said Courtland’s “thrown her in a lake” statement came when she stopped by the car wash a day or so after Baby Kate’s disappearance. He said she told him she didn’t want to look for Kate, then made the “lake” statement.

Within a couple more days she wanted to return to work, Salisbury said. “She said that in her mind that the baby was safe, whether it was alive or dead… That it was in a safe place and that God would take care of the baby,” so she wanted to “move on,” he testified.

The statement about wishing the baby would disappear or die came during a disciplinary interview, Salisbury said. He was writing her up and she told him she was concerned about finances since her new baby was born.

Smedley also, earlier, called Courtland herself as a defense witness. In her brief return to the stand, Courtland angrily denied making the statement about wishing she’d never had the baby or wishing she was dead.

John S. Hausman | Mlive.comKenneth Wilson on the witness stand.

Smedley’s other witness was Kenneth Wilson, boyfriend of Courtland’s mother, April Lange. The two lived in a house on Staffon Street in Ludington that Courtland testified she rode her bicycle to around 2:30 p.m. June 29.

Wilson testified that Courtland was eating a taco at the house before a Ludington police officer arrived to talk to her about the baby’s disappearance. He said he didn’t know Kate was missing until the officer got there.

On a later day, Wilson said, Courtland showed up at a lake where Wilson and friends were searching for the baby. He said she showed up briefly, driven by her father, but left without joining the search, saying, “She isn’t here. Sean wouldn’t leave her within three counties.”

Wilson also recalled an incident when Courtland flew into a rage at her mother after Courtland expressed anger over seeing a picture on Facebook of Phillips wearing an orange jail jumpsuit.

According to Wilson, Lange said, “Why don’t you be more concerned about your daughter?” Courtland then threw something at her mother and pushed Wilson when he intervened, he testified.

Under cross-examination by the prosecutor, Wilson said Phillips once offered him $5,000 to kill Courtland and offered Lange $10,000 to throw her out of the house, where she was then living.

The attorneys will make their closing arguments after the lunch break. Mason County 51st Circuit Judge Richard I. Cooper will then give legal instructions to the jury, and the will start to deliberate.

Cooper will give jurors the option of deliberating into the evening, or returning in the morning, as they prefer.